Today’s guest post comes from BuzzStream customer Tristan Pelligrino. Tristan is the co-owner of 522 Productions and Marketing Director for 522 Digital. He enjoys writing about the intersection of video and the web and connecting with peers online.

I’ve always enjoyed attending industry events. They’re an important part of growth on both a personal and organizational level. Even though it can be difﬁcult to squeeze in a 2-day conference, events unlock many opportunities. Major events provide access to industry leaders and peers while shedding light on trends related to your business.

Despite the obvious advantages of an industry event, many marketers don’t take advantage of these situations for link building. Since industry leaders, peers and interested attendees are all gathered in one place, you can’t afford to miss out on this chance to build your online network. But, how can you break through the noise and develop compelling content from an industry event? Well, that’s where video comes in.

Using Video Content for Link Building

It’s becoming more difﬁcult to conduct outreach and get a featured post. Now, more than ever, you need compelling content to entice webmasters and business owners to include your material. Video is one of the best ways you can differentiate your content.

Video provides an opportunity for you to integrate a human element to your content. Testimonials and interviews are a perfect example for how you can establish a personal connection and add another layer to text content. Industry events are a perfect avenue for gathering short video clips. If you can develop resourceful written content and mix with video, this helps you cut through the clutter on the web.

How to Maximize Your Budget for Video Content

One of the main barriers to using video, especially for linkbuilding purposes, is the high cost. Frankly, it takes a signiﬁcant budget to hire a videographer or a 2-person camera crew to ﬁlm interviews and event footage. Then, after you capture the content required, you have to turn over the material to an editor for post-production. The costs for this entire process usually exceeds a few thousand dollars.

If you focus on a single video, the return on investment of a few thousand dollars might be out of reach for one guest post. It just might not make sense to spend thousands on a 2-minute video. But, what if you spread these costs across several videos? What if you were able to connect with high quality websites, gain access to your target audience and deliver compelling content….multiple times? Well, this is how you maximize your budget for video content.

Since the production costs (camera operator, equipment) are one of the larger expenses, it’s important to use this portion of your investment wisely. Sending a one- man or two-man crew out to an industry event for a day can give you access to a wide range of material for video content. If you can develop a set of goals and outline a plan for your camera crew, capturing hours of content from a single day is relatively simple.

Collecting video content at an industry event is usually the most difﬁcult part of the process. It requires hiring a crew, coordinating schedules, conducting interviews, gathering b-roll, etc. But once you’ve collected the material upfront, you can invest in post-production as your needs arise.

A Blueprint for Combining Industry Events and Video Content for Link Building

Ok, so linkbuilding by using video content seems like a good idea, right? And, if you can capture material at an industry event, you can maximize your budget. If you’re convinced so far, here’s a series of steps you can take in order to make it happen for your next industry event. Good luck!

Build momentum leading into an event – If you’ve identiﬁed an industry event that is noteworthy, it’s crucial to build momentum through social media. Twitter is probably the best route, but Facebook can have beneﬁts, too. By using Twitter, see who is attending and generate conversations using the event’s hashtag. Identify their interests. See who has a voice. Find out what is trending for this event.

Establish a plan for videos – As you listen and engage on social media, develop an outline of content you’d like to produce. Identify potential interviewees (based upon who is attending), coordinate schedules, create interview questions and list a number of video snippets you’d like to produce.

Obtain an estimate from a videographer – After you have your basic plan, gather a few estimates from local videographers. This way, you know how much investment is required and you’ll be able to determine how many featured posts will be needed to provide a return.

Conduct outreach to gather interest beforehand – After you have an estimate and your general plan for content, commit to doing outreach to those attending the event. Pitch your video ideas and see who’d like to feature these on their site. Make sure your ideas are tightly integrated with their website content and will be very helpful to their audience. Build upon the conversations, increase momentum.

Get a minimum number of committed sites – If an event is going to give you a return on your investment, it’s important to have at least a minimal amount of committed sites beforehand.

Build pieces before the event – Ok, once you have some commitment, it’s time to get your freelance editor involved. Determine how you’re going to brand the videos. Develop a title/logo bump beforehand. Use some of the event’s branding or logos. Whatever you can do beforehand helps move things along faster when you get back from the event.

Conﬁrm your videographer – As soon as you’re comfortable with the outreach and are happy with the sites you’ll be featured on, make sure to conﬁrm your videographer. Share your detailed plan for the event and make sure they are on board.

Capture footage – While at the event, you basically have two primary duties: 1) Network and 2) Capture interview content. Work with your videographer, connect with industry peers/leaders, and capture the material you drafted in your plan.

Organize footage and get transcripts – Once you’ve come back from the event, have your editor organize the footage and send out for transcripts. By having everything in text format, you can even organize how you’d like to build the videos (without involving the editor in too much detail).

Commit to a quick turnaround of edits – Once you have your interview content identiﬁed and tied to the outline you developed, have your editor compile everything. Know ahead of time what video you want to get out ﬁrst, and get these ﬁnished edits out to your committed sites right away!

[…] How to Combine Industry Events with Videos for Link Building Results by @pelligrino We’ve all read blog post roundups from those who have attended industry conferences, right? It’s easy to be overlooked as just another post in a flood of blogs. Tristan offers a solution to this problem, video. Though video can require more time and resources, it could supply more opportunities to provide valuable information by using a different medium. Check out this post to learn what steps to take leading up to creation and promotion of the video, as well as, how to maximize your budget. […]